The Man from Merlotte's
by Lyaika
Summary: What happens when someone uses Lafayette to get vengeance on Eric? Lafayette/Pam/Sam/Eric/OC, set about a week after the events of the season 3 finale. Rated M for swearing  it's Lafayette, what do you expect?
1. Chapter 1

Long time no post! And I've decided to completely rewrite it, now that I actually have a plot in my head lol. The chapters are also normal sized, not little mini ones. I don't know how long it'll be before Chapter Two cuz I'll be writing more for each one. Please R&R! :D__

**_Thursday_**

Lafayette walked into Merlotte's, getting ready for the night shift. Tonight was going to be busy; ex-sheriff Bud Dearborne was bringing in some of his square-dancing buddies.

He had thought about quitting his job at the bar. It just wasn't the same with Sookie, Tara and Tommy gone, and Sam had been acting strangely for the past couple days. Truth be told, Lafayette didn't feel comfortable around his boss anymore. First his vision last week of Sam with bloodstained hands, and his words: "Cross me and you're a dead man." and now this. He seemed to be looking over his shoulder all the time. What had Jesús said to him? His V experience had awakened something in him. And that the visions would wear off. Probably. Hell, he wasn't exactly reassuring, especially when he said he wasn't even sure that his own had, and that maybe he'd just got used to it. He hadn't had any more visions for over six days now. He was roused from his reverie when he heard shouting coming from Sam's office.

"Don't you think I got enough problems of my own, Terry?" Sam shouted.

"Well… I just thought you could tell Arlene to take it easy…" Terry said.

"It's pretty damn difficult to run a bar when two of your employees go missing in the same week!"

Terry looked up. "Three." He said in a low voice.

"What?" Now that Lafayette had edged closer, he could see that Terry flinched from Sam.

"Well, you said two, and there's three gone missing: Tara, Sookie and your brother." At this point, Lafayette came in and grabbed Terry.

"C'mon Ter, you get on home to Arlene. You talk to her about only takin' the lunch shifts." He led Terry out the office. Sam nodded at him. Lafayette took one look at his boss and walked away. Sam blew out his cheeks and ran his hands over his head, making his hair stick out in all directions.

After Terry left Lafayette went into the kitchen to start the prep. He let his mind wander as he was preparing the ingredients. There were three employees missing in the same week; Sam was acting pissed off all the time; Arlene was acting pissed off all the time (but she blamed it on the baby)… when you really thought about it, the only sane ones left were him and Holly. Which was pretty fucking funny – according to Arlene, Holly was a Wiccan, and apparently he was a witch now. He shook his head and got on with the prep.

Bud Dearborne and his crew came in about eight, and after a couple drinks their table was the loudest in the bar. It seemed like quitting the force had been one of the best things Bud had done. In fact, the whole of Merlotte's was pretty busy for a Thursday night. But then again, Lafayette thought, it was probably the fact that only Holly and Jessica were waiting the tables tonight. People had grown fond of the baby vamp, and she managed to pull in the crowds. She had a couple admirers too, but Lafayette didn't think Hoyt was too pleased about that. And anyway, Jessica was getting kinda annoying – she just talked about Hoyt all the time.

To be honest, this was the biggest crowd Merlotte's had had in days. Sam's rant last week had nigh on scared the whole damn town away, so the reason it was so busy tonight was probably because he wasn't bartending. The Thursday crowd ate their dinner early and then stuck to drinking – Bud Dearborne's table having done a lot of both. Sam liked to do his bookkeeping on Thursdays, and with Tara gone, Lafayette had to serve as replacement barman when people stopped ordering food. He was doing a pretty good job.

Something made him look up. Someone new had come in. He was very tall, tanned and had short brown spiky hair. There was something odd about him, and as he made his way up to the bar, Lafayette briefly wondered if they had any TruBlood in. It turned out he needn't have worried, because after he sat down he ordered a beer and looked around. After Lafayette went to get a pitcher for Holly, he spoke. "Aren't you a little understaffed?" He wasn't from Louisiana, but his accent was difficult to place, maybe Alabama?

"Well, I don' know if you noticed the missing posters outside the bar…"

"You mean them three people? They work here?"

"They did a week ago." The stranger took another sip of his beer.

"One of them is dead." The young man said flatly. Lafayette's eyes widened. Just as he was about to tell him to get the fuck out, his phone rang. The man looked up as he answered.

"It's Tara." The voice said.

"Where the fuck are you?"

"That doesn't matter. I just needed to get away from all the supernatural shit."

"Hookah, that ain't no excuse, you can't just go bailin' on people! Ain't you bothered how I been feelin'? For all I knew you was dead!" A couple of customers were staring now, Lafayette noticed. He lowered his voice. "Look, I can't talk right now, I'm workin'. I'ma call you back when I finish, kay?"

"Look, Lala, you know I love you, but I got my own shit to deal with right now. I don't think I'll be coming back, at least not for a while. Tell Sookie I called." She hung up before he could tell her that Sookie was missing.

The man at the bar was still sitting there expectantly. Lafayette turned to him. "Sookie ain't dead, is she?" he asked.

"Not that I know of." The man replied, and left.

Jessica passed by the bar. "What a creep." She said. Lafayette was a little taken aback before he realised that she probably heard what the guy had said with her vampire hearing. "He smelled weird."

"What, you mean like a werewolf or something?" Tara had told him about them before she'd run off.

"No, they smell like wet dog. I don't know what that guy was."

Big fuckin' surprise, more supernatural shit in Bon Temps. Maybe Tara had the right idea, leaving. What with Maryann (whatever the fuck she was), vampires, and now werewolves, the world just wasn't what it used to be. Oh, and yeah, he was dating a witch now, and might be one himself. He forgot about that.

Jesús came in a little later, at closing time. "Hey babe," he said, leaning over the counter and giving Lafayette a kiss. "What's wrong?" He asked. "You look a little distracted."

"I'll tell you in the car." He said. He turned towards Sam's office and yelled to let him know he was leaving.

As soon they got in the car Jesús leaned over and kissed Lafayette again. Lafayette returned the kiss but pulled away after a while. "There's something I been meanin' to ask you." He said. Jesús motioned for him to continue. "Well, you know the visions, are they real? I mean, I ain't goin' crazy am I?"

Jesús smiled at Lafayette. "I already told you. After we did V that night it awakened something in you – your own latent powers. Now you can see the truth in things. It'll probably wear off… I mean, I don't get visions anymore."

Lafayette considered what Jesús had said. "So what I'm seeing, it's the truth?" Jesús nodded. "Ah, _shit_."

"What?"

"I think my boss might have killed someone."

"Are you serious? You have to tell the cops or something-" Jesús was cut short by Lafayette's sceptical look. "What? You have to do something."

"And tell them what? That I had a vision of Sam with blood on his hands tellin' me he was gonna kill me if I ever crossed him. How you think that's gonna go down?"

"You're unbelievable."

"Relax J, I got this. I don't really believe Sam did it, but I think he knows where Tommy is. I'll talk to him 'bout it tomorrow."

"Again, you're unbelievable." He shook his head in exasperation, but when he looked back at Lafayette he could see he was smiling.

"I don't want my mothafuckin' boss to be a murderer, you do know that right?" Lafayette smiled at Jesús's expression. He always looked cute when he was annoyed.

"Yeah, I know. Your place or mine?"


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry for the delay, but I actually have an excuse: I've been in a computer-less house for a week. The irony is that I'd practically already finished this chapter - I was halfway through the final scene. I had a lot of fun writing this though, especially the final part XD. Leave me a review if you want :)

_**Friday**_

The man from the bar ran back through the woods on his way to Fangtasia. He needed to do something before he checked out the vamp bar anyway, and after the look on the bartender's face he knew it would be worthwhile. He sniffed around until he found what he was looking for. Damn, the fucker was really starting to smell. But he came here with a purpose in mind. He took out his phone and took a photo of it. That wasn't so hard. Now he just had to scout out Fangtasia. He put the phone back into his pocket and ran back to his car. Like Mom used to say, it's always useful to have a backup plan.

* * *

><p>Pam was bored. No, more than that. She was positively filled with <em>ennui<em>. Fangtasia at 2 AM on a Friday morning was not the place to be. Eric wasn't here, Chow was boring and now with that bitch Yvetta gone there wasn't any fun to be had. Since most of the customers were heading home for the night, she thought she could head off. She hadn't seen Jessica in a while, and was growing quite fond of the baby vamp – but don't tell anyone.

A tall, tanned man came to the door. "We're closing." She drawled.

The man looked taken aback by this, but then again, what did he expect? Vampires have their own business to attend to, you know. There are only so many hours in the night and entertaining humans is, at least in Pam's opinion, not the priority.

"But you're a vamp bar, shouldn't you be open all night?" He said. Pam didn't have time for this. She let her mind go blank and then focused on the man.

"Go. Home." She glamoured. The man just frowned. She tried again, while he patiently waited. Damn. He was like Sookie, only he didn't smell as good. She sighed. "What do you want?"

He pulled out a photo. "Do you know this man?" It was Eric.

"I've never seen him before." She said flatly. She didn't like this breather.

"Now, why do I think you're lying?"

Now he had pissed her off. She snarled and bared her fangs. The man didn't flinch. "I think you're being pretty presumptuous. What is your business here?" He turned to leave. Pam made a grab for him. "I asked you," she said, swinging him around and pinning him to the wall. "What is your business here?"

"That was it." He leered at her. Cocky bastard. "I guess he's not here-" His words were cut short as Pam punched him in his stomach. He gasped, then recovered enough to kick her. He was stronger than an ordinary human. She drew closer to him, and whispered in his ear. "You better not be using vampire blood."

"Not yet." Jeez, did the guy have a death wish? She was about a millisecond away from draining him when a group of customers came out. They stopped in their tracks when they saw what was happening. A few of them giggled.

"Man, what do I have to do to get a vamp to bite?" One of the fangbangers asked. She looked enviously at Pam and the man.

"Careful, you don't want to scare away your customers…" he whispered to Pam. She snorted. They all practically wanted you to drink them dry anyway. She threw the man to the floor.

"You were lucky this time. If I see you near my bar again I won't be so lenient."

"_My_ bar?" Eric had returned. He grinned at her. "If you wanted a bigger share, you'll have to put in a little more work, Pam." He surveyed the scene. "My, my, what have you been getting up to?" Evidently he wasn't too interested; he went inside without waiting for an answer. Pam looked at the man. His expression was incomprehensible. He looked pleased, angry and shocked at the same time. She didn't like the way he looked.

He stood up. "See, there was no need to lie, was there, Pam?" She growled at him. He walked to his car. She would have liked to have seen at least a limp, but the man seemed fine. That just pissed her off even more.

She went inside. She had to tell Eric about his new fan.

* * *

><p>Lafayette was woken up by the knocking at his door. He looked over at Jesús and saw he was still snoring. "Fuckin' typical." He said, and went to open the door. The man from the bar was there. Lafayette's eyes widened as he tried and failed to stifle a huge yawn. What time was it? He rubbed his eyes and faced his unwelcome visitor. "What the fuck are you doing here?" Just as the man was about to answer, Lafayette silenced him with another question. "How the fuck did you find me?"<p>

The man stared at Lafayette. "It's not hard to find someone like you."

Lafayette rubbed his eyes. He did not want to be dealing with shit like this, not at this time of the morning. How the fuck could Jesús have slept through? He was practically dead to the world. "Someone like me?" He asked.

"A prolific drug dealer. Oh, and sometime hustler, but you don't do that anymore, right?"

"Back to my first question: what the fuck do you want?"

"I came to give you something, in return for a favour. See, selling such a large amount of V is going to attract the vamps' attention. And since you're still here, I'm thinking they know what you're doing – maybe they're even supplying it." He pulled a photo out of his jeans pocket. "Do you know this vampire?"

"Yeah, that's Eric."

"Can you get him to come see you? How much V do you have left?" Lafayette was getting uneasy with all this questioning. He shouldn't have said he knew Eric. Shit, he'd let his guard down. That was probably why the man had called on him so early: so he'd be unprepared.

"I ain't answerin' any more of your questions till you tell me this thing you wanna give me."

"Sure." He pulled out another photo and gave it to him.

"Fuck!" Lafayette nearly dropped the photo. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" It was a photo of Tommy. A week in the woods of rural Louisiana hadn't done him any good. The man looked genuinely shocked by Lafayette's reaction.

"What? I thought you wanted proof. Show it to your boss. Blackmail him. I don't care."

"Who's that?" It was Jesús. He had finally woken up. He came to the door and looked the man up and down.

"Some sick fuck." Said Lafayette, advancing on the man. Jesús followed.

The man shrugged. "When you change your mind on that favour, I'll be around." They watched him leave.

"See, it's times like this I think you should just stick to normal-people jobs." Jesús said.

Lafayette snorted. "You and me both."

* * *

><p>Merlotte's wasn't very busy tonight. That gave Lafayette the chance to ask Sam about Tommy. He wasn't even supposed to be working tonight – he just needed to know. Sam looked surprised when Lafayette came up to the bar.<p>

"Hey, Sam, can I have a word with you?" He said. Looking around at the nearly empty bar, he saw there was no excuse for Sam to not talk to him. Sam nodded and walked with him to his office. He crossed the room and sat down on the edge of his desk with his arms crossed.

"What's the matter, Lafayette?" He asked. Lafayette considered what to say. Now that he was actually here, he saw that what he was doing was pretty stupid. He decided he might as well just come out and say it.

"I think Tommy's dead." He saw a muscle in Sam's jaw twitch.

"What makes you think that?" Sam said. He went round to the back of his desk and sat down.

"It's just that, there was a guy in the bar…" Lafayette began, but Sam cut him off.

"I'm sure he'll turn up somewhere," he said. "Is that all you came in to say? Because if you did, then I better get back to work." Sam made a motion to get up. It was now or never.

"I know he's dead," he hesitated. "Because I've seen it." Sam's face darkened.

"Then why don't you go to the police? In fact, why don't you tell Andy Bellefleur? He's in right now." Lafayette turned around and looked down the hallway from Sam's office. Andy was one of the few people who were in tonight. He turned around and promptly gasped.

Sam was holding a gun to him.

Now, even though this was the third time in his life Lafayette had had a gun pointed at him, he somehow hadn't gotten used to it. He stood, stuck to the spot.

"Move." Sam said roughly. "To the right," he added when he saw Lafayette turn to walk towards the bar. "We're going outside." Lafayette moved slowly towards the door. He could turn around and try and rush Sam, but could he risk it? Sam was keeping his distance, maybe he could run… They were still walking, further out of the parking lot now. They were near the woods that surrounded Merlotte's. Why was he taking him this far?

That was pretty obvious. He didn't want anyone to hear the gunshots. They had reached the woods now; Lafayette had to look down to avoid snagging his jeans or tripping on the undergrowth. He wondered how much further they were going to go.

Then he saw it. It was Tommy's corpse. Panic welled up inside him as he realised why Sam had brought him here. There was nothing he could do. He looked back at Sam.

"Sorry." He said, but he didn't look very sorry at all.

He pulled the trigger.


	3. Chapter 3

I didn't expect to be posting an update so soon, but there you go! The suspense was killing me haha. I know it's a little shorter, but I just needed to resolve it. The next one should be longer :)

**_Friday night_**

The doors to Merlotte's swung open, revealing a tall, blonde vampire. Eric did like to make an entrance, Jessica thought to herself. She smiled inwardly. The few people in the bar looked nervous, and she saw Andy Bellefleur reach subconsciously for his gun in the corner of her eye. Dumbass. He walked towards her.

"Where is Sam?" he demanded. She looked affronted.

"Gee, hey Eric. How you doin'? I'm just great." she said. Eric quickly zoomed over to the baby vamp, eliciting a gasp from the customers.

"I have no time for this. Where is he?"

"He's in his office, Lafayette–" But he had already gone. A woman in a nearby table raised her hand tentatively. "What do you want?" she snapped. The woman returned to her meal.

When Eric reached the office he found it empty. Eric was getting annoyed. He wanted to ask Sam if he knew anything about Sookie's disappearance, and the shifter wasn't even at his own bar. He could smell him though, so he'd been here recently. He looked down the corridor and saw that the outside door had been left open. He walked out into the parking lot. The scent of shifter was stronger here, and it got stronger towards the woods that surrounded Merlotte's.

He had no idea where Sam was, and at this moment he didn't much care. He had his own bar to run – he couldn't keep leaving Pam in charge, she was starting to think she was part-owner. He turned to leave.

Then he heard it. It was unmistakeably the sound of a gun being fired, and it came from the direction of the woods. He had heard recently that Sam had gone a little mental the week before, and, more importantly, he might have some useful information on Sookie. He zoomed off into the woods.

He didn't expect to see this.

Sam was crouching over a figure, the gun in his hand. He recognised Lafayette instantly.

"Merlotte!" he roared. Sam spun around but Eric was too quick for him. Faster than either Sam or Lafayette could see, Sam was suddenly flung against a nearby tree. He lay there unconscious. He crouched beside Lafayette. Blood was pouring freely from the wound in his chest, and he kept on shuddering and making incomprehensible gasping noises. "You're becoming a liability, Lafayette." Eric muttered.

"This… ain't your fault… for once," Lafayette said. "Are… you gonna help me… or not?"

Eric considered. If Lafayette was gone, that tied up a few loose ends nicely. But Eric had his orders, and Lafayette was one of the best V dealers in the state. He looked at Lafayette. "I guess I better…" He bared his fangs and bit into his arm. He let the blood drip into Lafayette's mouth. "Not too much," Eric said after a while. "Unless you want to get turned." Lafayette stopped. He wasn't bleeding anymore, but he wasn't completely healed either. He lifted himself up and propped himself against a tree.

There was the small problem of Sam.

"What do you want me to do?" Eric asked. What could Lafayette do? The most sensible option would be to give him to the cops, but Lafayette didn't like the idea. "I could kill him." Eric said as though reading his mind.

"No."

"Hand him in to the police?"

"No. I mean, Sam is like the centre of this town, y'know? I…"

"I could glamour him." Eric looked at him when he didn't reply. "That's what you want, isn't it?"

Lafayette didn't speak for a while. Eventually, he spoke. "It would be better." Eric sighed.

"You know I came here to question him about Sookie, if I glamour him, he won't have any useful information…"

"He ain't gonna tell you nothin', not now. And 'sides, he doesn't know anythin' anyway." Eric's eyes bored into him. "And Sookie's alive, 'least as far as I know."

"Well, this hasn't been an entirely wasted trip then." Damn, Eric could be cold. They sat in silence. A few minutes later, Sam opened his eyes groggily. Before he was even fully awake, Eric was crouching over him.

"Be quiet," he advised Lafayette. "I need to concentrate." He began. Lafayette couldn't hear what he was saying; all he could see was the Eric's back. But then when Eric moved away, he saw Sam's face. It looked totally blank. He felt a little wrench of guilt in his stomach. Sam promptly got up and walked away. Lafayette didn't think he'd even seen them.

Eric turned to face him. He looked less gloomy than before, probably because he knew Sookie was still alive now. That girl was a magnet for trouble. "Next time, don't go after someone who you think is a killer, Lafayette. I'm too busy to keep on coming to your rescue." This, coming from the vampire who had had him locked in a goddamn dungeon for weeks? He tried to feel angry, but he couldn't, not with Eric's blood inside him and the real thing standing so close. This must be an effect of the blood bond Sookie had told him about.

"Ain't you gonna take the body?" Lafayette asked. Eric glanced at it with a look of disgust on his face.

"Leave it here; nobody will find it." He said, and left, vampire style.

What a fucked up night. Lafayette looked around and shook his head. He got to his feet and hobbled back to his car.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey, I'm back! I've come back from the dead and written an update (only 6 months too late). Also now that season 4 is out and Tommy is alive I realise this is probably a bit AU, but I haven't seen season 4 yet (I'm waiting for it to come on channel 4, which'll probably be this autumn – when you guys in the US will have season 5… jealous ¬¬).

_**Saturday**_

Lafayette didn't sleep much, even with a couple Vicodin in him. He kept on seeing Sam's empty look after Eric had done with him. That was almost worse than dreaming about getting shot. Lafayette groaned when he realised that he had to go in to Merlotte's today. He winced as he got out of bed, feeling a tugging pain in his chest. Maybe he could call off sick… but he needed the money too bad.

Just a couple hours with Sam, that was all. He could cope.

Something wasn't right as he arrived at Merlotte's. He got out the car feeling uneasy. The door opened and Terry Bellefleur came out, singing. He stopped when he saw Lafayette. "Hey, buddy!" he said and pulled Lafayette into a bearhug.

Lafayette was a little slow on the uptake. "Hey, Terry." he muttered. He went inside.

"Lafayette!" Arlene called. "Wait till you hear the good news! Sam-"

"Hey, Lafayette!" Sam interrupted. Jesus, what was wrong with everybody? "Come over here." He motioned towards his office.

Lafayette felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as he remembered what had happened in Sam's office only yesterday. This was wrong – Terry, Arlene, Sam. Why were they all so happy? They had been goddamn miserable before. He didn't want to go back in that room. He hung buy the door as Sam entered and leaned against the desk.

"You're getting a raise." He said. Lafayette's eyes widened.

"Is everybody getting' a raise?" Sam nodded. That would explain why they were so happy. "Why?"

"With Sookie and Tara and Tommy gone, y'all are having to work longer. So you get better pay."

"Okay…"

"Normally I would have hired some new people, but Arlene keeps on telling me this is the busiest we've been in days."

"You mean you can't remember?" Lafayette asked.

"Nope," he shook his head. "This week's just gone." He clapped his hands. He seemed very nonchalant about it. Lafayette didn't know what to say. Sam looked at him expectantly. He muttered something about getting the grill on and left.

The guy had just shot him last night, and now he was offering him a raise?

Eric. This was his doing.

Lafayette avoided Sam all day. He was the first to leave.

* * *

><p>It was getting dark as Lafayette arrived at home. All he wanted to do now was just get inside, take a couple more Vicodin and sleep. Unfortunately, it didn't look like he was going to get to do that.<p>

The man from the bar was standing outside the house.

"You know, I'm seriously considerin' takin' out a mothafuckin' restrainin' order on you." Lafayette said. "What the fuck do you want now?"

The man looked at him and said, "Was I right about the shifter?"

"The what?"

"Your boss. Did he kill the guy?"

"Wait… are you tryin' to tell me you gave me a photo of a dead body to blackmail my boss and you wasn't even sure he killed him?"

"Well, I thought there was a pretty good chance it was him. The body smelled of shifter, and when I came to the bar I smelled shifter. Simple."

Lafayette didn't know what shifter meant, but at this point he didn't really care. "So you see a dead body and your first thought is to take a fuckin' photo?"

"Dead bodies are interesting." The man said. "Anyway, I've come for my favour. After that I'll be gone."

"I didn't agree to no favour!"

"All I want is some V."

"No." Lafayette said flatly.

"You know, I could just take it if I wanted." So, he wanted a fight? Fine.

"You think so, mothafucka?"

The man moved forward. Lafayette did the same. Then, quicker than he could see, the man leapt forwards and punched him, winding him. Lafayette staggered back to his feet. The man grinned. He wasn't expecting that; the guy was stronger than he looked.

"Come on Lala! Is that all you-" Lafayette rushed him mid-sentence, knocking him to the floor. The man's head banged against the decking. Lafayette threw a punch but before his fist connected with the man's nose he rolled away; his fist continued and hit the wooden deck. The man kicked him, knocking him onto his side. He kicked him, and kicked him again.

"Are you ready to give me some V?" the man asked, leaning over Lafayette with a grin on his face. Lafayette got up slowly, wincing at the pain in his stomach. He briefly wondered when whether he had broken a knuckle or two, but he didn't have any pain in his hand. It had really not been his week.

"That's better," the man said. "I want two vials." Lafayette went inside to fetch the blood. He'd never seriously considered having a gun before, but the past few days had made him rethink the idea.

He returned a while later. He stood in the doorway with the V in his hand. The man reached for it. "Wait a goddamn minute, mothafucka. You get the V when you tell me what Eric Northman has to do with all this."

The man withdrew his hand. "Me and him got some unfinished business. I thought you'd know him 'cause you've drunk his blood before."

"How the fuck do you know that?"

"I can sense the blood bond between you. It's stronger now - you've had some more recently."

"Why did you come to me in the first place?"

"What, at Merlotte's? I was just there to get a drink, then I saw you and knew you had a faint blood bond. You weren't the only one in there either, but I knew the vamp whose blood you'd had was an old one, and the guy I'm after's pretty old. I needed some V, so I came round to see you. I didn't know you were the guy I was lookin' for till I saw you, so I asked you 'bout Eric as well. You were a lot more helpful than that deader at the vamp bar – come to think of it, that bitch lied to me! She must know Eric. Anyway, I realised the whole Tommy thing put you off, so I left. And then I came back here tonight because I told ya, I need the V."

Lafayette frowned. "How did you even know about Tommy?"

The man shrugged. "I was out in the woods. Saw a body, smelled it was a shifter. Smelled another shifter on him too, so I took a photo. I thought I could solve a murder." The man laughed. His smile was lopsided. Lafayette grimaced.

"Look, take the V and get the fuck out of here. You fuckin' come near me again and I'll bust your fuckin' ass."

Lafayette watched the man go. It was time to get some answers. He rang Eric.

"Can you tell me why I'm gettin' beat up because of people who got a problem with you?"

"Lafayette. I don't have time to deal with you right now. Kinda busy."

"Hold the fuck up! I got shot last night!"

"I'm trying to find Sookie."

"OK, but there's this guy who says he's got some deal with you; he's been askin' round for you."_ He's also got some V off me_.

Eric sighed. "He is becoming quite an annoyance." He started speaking Swedish or Viking or some other fuckin' dead language to someone else. "Listen, Lafayette, I've got Pam on it. Don't worry about it."

"Tell that ho to hurry the fuck up, he's a mothafuckin' psycho. What's his deal with you anyway?"

"I killed his mother."

Lafayette was stunned. "Any particular reason why?"

"She drained a vampire who owed fealty to me; she had to be punished."

"When?"

"Sometime in the Thirties. I think she was a kind of demon, an imp maybe. She certainly had to be strong to take down Pádraig."

"This guy is a fuckin' imp? I don't even know what a fuckin' imp is!" For once, Eric laughed.

"It's being dealt with, Lafayette." He hung up.

Lafayette shook his head. He could lie to himself and say he wanted an ordinary life (as ordinary as you can get for a gay drug-dealing internet-stripping hustler short-order cook-cum-road worker), but in truth a part of him knew he wouldn't get one. Bon Temps seemed attract all kinds of supernatural shit, himself apparently included.

He went inside.


End file.
